Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like standard clarinets, it is usually pitched in B flat (meaning it is a transposing instrument where a written C sounds as B flat), and plays notes an octave below the "normal" B flat clarinet and an octave above the Contrabass clarinet.

Bass clarinet in jazz

While the bass clarinet was seldom heard in early jazz compositions, a bass clarinet solo by Omer Simeon can be heard in the 1926 recording "Someday Sweetheart" by Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Omer Simeon - 1926 - Jelly Roll Morton

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Harry Carney occasionally played bass clarinet in some of Duke Ellington's arrangements, beginning in the late 1930s.

Related Topics:
Harry Carney - Duke Ellington - 1930s

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Eric Dolphy (1928-1964) was the first major jazz soloist on the instrument, and established much of the vocabulary and technique used by later performers.

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While the bass clarinet has been used often since Dolphy, it is typically used by a saxophonist or clarinetist as a second or third instrument. Very few performers have used the instrument exclusively, but one such performer is the Baltimore-based American musician and bandleader Todd Marcus.

Related Topics:
Saxophonist - Clarinetist - Todd Marcus

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